For every person doing great work of the sort he describes - original and impactful - there often needs to be several talented people helping to execute towards the newly discovered goal. He hints at this when he mentions the need to manage on certain types of projects. So what of all those talented craftsmen helping get the idea done? Working a job, hard enough to squeeze away time towards significant side projects (if one still desires to maintain good health and relations with family)? Are they suckers? Should they phone it in at work to leave time for their side hustle? What if trying hard at their main job is more impactful? This is the paradox of startup advice. It’s good advice for those aiming to do original work. But it turns its nose up at the kind of work that is a vital ingredient towards achieving great things. And I think Cal Newports advice is more practical in this sense - cultivating craft and autonomy within any role can be equally satisfying and is way more practical for a lot of people.

That said, I still really like PG’s advice for how to think about being original, and I suppose I shouldn’t expect someone trying to convince more people to become founders to be completely even handed about assessing or recommending other kinds of meaningful impactful work.